GDT: 2024 NHL Entry Draft, at The Sphere in Vegas, Friday, June 28, 7 p.m. edt | SN, TVA Sports, ESPN, NHLN

[Wats]

I'm expecting the 26th to be traded for a forward. Unreasonably, I will be disappointed if the tradition doesn't continue.

 

[Kents polished head]

No PPG player , No 1 D , No 1 G , but fans want us to exit the rebuild...nice

In fact, what I have a hard time getting, is how this fanbase can be so confident in this management when this is the situation we find ourselves after 3 full years of tanking.

It seems people have fallen in love with "trusting the process" so much that they have forgotten the goal of a rebuild is to actually get better at some point in time.

Not saying they should all be fired. But a sane level of skepticism might be needed here. Instead of parroting "Went Wughes" and "St-Louis the player whisperer" nonsense.

We're nowhere near what a fanbase would hope after three years of tanking.

 

[Tyson]

Well... since I am done with rebuild and these guys better make playoffs, addressing forwards through the draft isn't going to help this season. So trades. Make trades. I hear Barron and Harris are top notch, so no problem getting some premium up front talent for them...


Habs desperately need NHL players on bottom 2 lines. About 5 of them. Someone that can shut down, cycle, eat pucks and dish out hits and inflict pain.

I don't think the Habs are done with the rebuild.

 

[HuGort]

This board will implode if the Habs draft a D or Cole Eiserman.

Hughes took safest pick last year. So you never know

 

[Team_Spirit]

What would it mean to play with Connor Bedard?
Did you have dinner with Pat Verbeek?
Did you meet Columbus?
Take a picture with uncle Tony?

God we don't hate the media enough, every single scrum gives me the ick.

Lmao

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

Unless top 4 goes Celebrini, Demidov, Lindstrom, Sennecke. Then Habs are definitely drafting Levshunov.

Guhle-Levshunov
Hutson-Reinbacher
Xhekaj-Mailloux

That would be nasty

How is this nasty , 4 of them are unproven lol

 

[ReHabs]

It’s been fun speculating with you all the past few weeks.

May tomorrow’s draft bring some hope to our hockey team.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

In fact, what I have a hard time getting, is how this fanbase can be so confident in this management when this is the situation we find ourselves after 3 full years of tanking.

It seems people have fallen in love with "trusting the process" so much that they have forgotten the goal of a rebuild is to actually get better at some point in time.

Not saying they should all be fired. But a sane level of skepticism might be needed here. Instead of parroting "Went Wughes" and "St-Louis the player whisperer" nonsense.

We're nowhere near what a fanbase would hope after three years of tanking.

I can't blame management for where the draft balls fall , I like hughes asset management. But good asset management should be the bare minimum , after a decade of Bergevin I can't fault fans for being optimistic about HuGo. I would have liked if we full blown tanked instead but apparently that would destroy our *superstar* players like Caufield and Suzuki lol can't make this up. Finishing 25th is great for development but 30th-32nd? Ruins them!

 

[Rapala]

We hit a pretty solid HR with Slaf. That is my humble opinion. When this kid gets to 24-26, he’ll be dominant. Just like Barkov became dominant (even as a winger).

I think folks here underestimate Ghule’s potential because they like the flashy types. Once he matures physically, and he will, he will be better than Florida’s best Ds. His main flaw right now is his shape. But he’s got everything. Heck, he can even drop them.

Suzuki has potential stil to be elite. His ceiling has not been reached on both sides of the ice.

I don’t see why + last year’s and this year’s draft potential we don’t get there in 3-4 seasons.

Indeed.
Do we need more talent in the top 6 absolutely. We still don't have a clue how Dach will pan out.
The thing is we also need the high quality connecting pieces that many want to ignore for no other reason than they aren't top 6 material.
One look at our special teams and one look at our bottom six should be enough to convince people we are no where near good enough with any of it.
Hughes wants to get better now so I expect a couple of moves at the very least.

 

[Tyson]

One thing is for sure, the Habs have accumulated a truck load of picks and they need to start using that capital. Can't keep adding 10 picks a year.

 

[rabbit4949]

Buium is creative and smart, sure. But I've watched him a lot in the NCAA this year trying to gauge his play and checking-in on other BC rookies like Perreault, Smith, and Leonard, as well as Cutter Gauthier.

From those games I watched, it clearly became apparent to me that Buium has an identifiable and exploitable pattern out there when deking from the blueline. It's almost always the same move he makes, or slight variations to it.

Every time Buium gets possession of the puck trying to challenge defenders 1-on-1 he moves his body and positions his stick and puck so as to confront the oncoming forechecker near the center of the ice, then he moves the puck backwards a bit trying to bait hesitation by the forechecker, then he moves the disk to his right to try and shield it from checking, and then tries to outskate his opponent while bracing for impact and maintaining possession, looking to either keep possession and round-out the net before dishing the puck, or using quick backhand passes to send it to teammates.

Having a go-to move is par for the course for every player, true. But Buium's overreliance on it may make his long-term transition to the NHL tougher offensively than some project when he eventually makes it to the NHL and opposing players get some more reps against him and "figure him out" if you will.

While not a true one-trick pony with the puck on his stick while he walks the blueline (which would be more true of a guy like Will Butcher), Buium'll still need to diversify his approach to trying to extend possessions from the blueline in the future.

He is certainly no Erik Karlsson manning the point, able to beat you any number of ways inside and out, with elite-level feints/quick reads. That's for damn sure.

Now, does that make Buium a bad defenseman? Absolutely not.

Buium's borderline elite in transition, smart, quite polished defensively, incredibly good at establishing and maintaining puck possession, and he has a very nice and projectable pro skillset to boot.

So yeah, I really love Buium's play, and have him as the third-best defenseman in this draft after Dickinson and Levshunov, but I genuinely think he benefited quite a bit from playing for a very high-scoring team this year in BC and that his pure offensive tools and PP QB abilities aren't as good as some public scouting sources portray.

If we don't draft him and he's still available I don't think we will have missed on a Quinn Hughes/Adam Fox/Cale Makar type though Buium's potential is obviously very high still.

As for the draft, I'd like us to draft Demidov, but if we end up with any of Dickinson, Levshunov, Buium, Silayev, Iginla, Catton, Lindstrom or Sennecke I won't be mad.

I watched quite a few BC/BU games to watch the Hutsons and Celebrini but I don't remember seeing this Buium guy. Completely invisible. Clearly an ND.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

One thing is for sure, the Habs have accumulated a truck load of picks and they need to start using that capital. Can't keep adding 10 picks a year.

Could use some to get rid of Anderson and Dvorak

 

[Gustave]

Next two days are critical to our next ten seasons. Let that sink in.

 

[Kents polished head]

I can't blame management for where the draft balls fall , I like hughes asset management. But good asset management should be the bare minimum , after a decade of Bergevin I can't fault fans for being optimistic about HuGo. I would have liked if we full blown tanked instead but apparently that would destroy our *superstar* players like Caufield and Suzuki lol can't make this up. Finishing 25th is great for development but 30th-32nd? Ruins them!

I don't think either scenario is great for development.

Plus we really couldn't have tanked more than we did this season unless we traded Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkovsky. Those three guys are why we didn't finish lower, and them producing is kind of beneficial to the long term success of this team.

We already lost Dach to an injury which also didn't help at all.

 

[Rapala]

I don’t like they don’t meet with Iginla. If Demidov and Lindstrom are gone, who they gon’ pick?

Well how many times do you actually need to meet with him? We are up to what 7 currently.
A lot of people are reading far too much into the fact that we haven't met him again after the last time.
They know exactly who the person is and what the player brings.
It's equally possibly they are meeting other players in his tier just to see if they can knock him down a peg on their list.

 

[Tyson]

I was 25 the last time the Habs had a 100 point scorer. I was 30 the last time they had a 50 goal scorer. I was 33 the last time they had a 40 goal scorer. I am now 63 and retired. I can't believe this team hasn't been able to find top tier talent in 30+ years.

 

[sampollock]

One thing is for sure, the Habs have accumulated a truck load of picks and they need to start using that capital. Can't keep adding 10 picks a year.

that is so correct, even KH said he may use these to make a package deal
can't have 100 prospects need to make a package to move up or a deal for a young player

 

[Kents polished head]

Next two days are critical to our next ten seasons. Let that sink in.

No organization needs a Demidov more than we do in the whole NHL.

 

[Andrei79]

I was 25 the last time the Habs had a 100 point scorer. I was 30 the last time they had a 50 goal scorer. I was 33 the last time they had a 40 goal scorer. I am now 63 and retired. I can't believe this team hasn't been able to find top tier talent in 30+ years.

I would look at it differently.

Sure, the Habs haven't had a 100 point scorer or a 50 goal scorer in 30 years.

But, you're retired at 63 living in Texas. You won man.

 

[BergevinBurner]

If Demidov is there at 3 then I'm guessing Anaheim takes him for an upgrade over Zegras and then shops Zegras for help on defense.

 

[Whitesnake]

If the idea though is to move up in the 10-15 to get Eiserman....seems to me we are aiming D at 5 'cause we know Lindstrom and Demidov will be gone.

How satisfied will you be with Buium-Eiserman?

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

I was 25 the last time the Habs had a 100 point scorer. I was 30 the last time they had a 50 goal scorer. I was 33 the last time they had a 40 goal scorer. I am now 63 and retired. I can't believe this team hasn't been able to find top tier talent in 30+ years.

Now imagine us people under 30 haha , the franchise is totally mediocre until proven otherwise

 

[badfish]

The more I read about Nathan Villeneuve the more I hope the Habs grab him at some point.

I've been on the Nathan Villeneuve train here for a few months. I watched him in Sudbury this year and thought he was great. His stats don't show the whole picture as Sudbury was deep with forwards this year and he was often playing 2nd/3rd line minutes. The guy plays tough as nails btw which I think would help the team. Another thing I haven't mentioned but I forgot was he also was playing PK and had some SHG this year too. I was also at a game this year where one of his teammates got nailed from behind and without hesitation Villeneuve grabbed the guy and started pummeling him even though the guy had 4 inches on him.

 

[FrankMTL]

I was 25 the last time the Habs had a 100 point scorer. I was 30 the last time they had a 50 goal scorer. I was 33 the last time they had a 40 goal scorer. I am now 63 and retired. I can't believe this team hasn't been able to find top tier talent in 30+ years.

It's been a while indeed.

I'm 44 so i'm lucky enough to have seen at least 1 Stanley Cup, win by our Habs, but the last 25 years have been somewhat depressing to say the least. I was somewhat hopeful when they traded for Pierre Turgeon in the mid 90's but that obviously didn't pan out.

All that to say that I would love to have some top tier offensive players on this team.

 

[Jaynki]

I taught you were pro-defenseman draft team? Silayev?

I am pro upside and after Lindstrom and Demidov, i believe the Ds have more upside than the Fs.

Imagine the following scenario : we draft a better LD at 5 then what we already have. And Silayev and Buium are that.

We acquire a better forward trading Guhle or Hutson than we would have picked at 5. Behind Demidov and Lindstrom, the crop of F is way less exciting.

If Demidov and Lindstrom are gone before we talk, that is the scenario that is being drawn.

Settling for a lesser F at 5 in the name of needing offense may lead us to a massive blunder.